Sacrifice
by Monoshiri
Summary: You can have something very profoundly in common with a perfect stranger...shounen-ai, written for Dawnshadow's "Random Pairings" challenge.
1. Rishid

Title: Sacrifice Rating: PG Category: Angst/Romance/Just Odd Pairings: Rishid/Kaiba Summary: You can have something very profoundly in common with a complete stranger. Warnings: Weapons, mentions of child abuse, slight violence, Kaiba ( Spoilers: For Battle Ship up to YnM's appearance, and for Ishtar-related weirdness Notes: For Dawnshadow's Random Pairings challenge. The first, Rishid- narrated part of this takes place after the Battle Ship takes off but before the duels begin, ostensibly when everyone's kicking back in their rooms. The second half, Kaiba-narrated, takes place after Rishid's duel with Jounouchi. I probably wrote them hideously OOC, so feel free to frag the thing in a constructive manner. Written in under three hours. For an alternate take on the same pairing, read "Spectator Sport" by Animum.  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
Rishid had assumed the Chief Executive Officer of KaibaCorp to be his own age, perhaps slightly younger. So it threw him off significantly when he heard one of the hangers-on of the other finalists--the ones who were Malik's age--address Seto Kaiba with the polite but familiar "Kaiba-kun", the suffix meaning that he was the same age as them, or younger even.  
  
It wasn't just that Kaiba was considerably taller than the other finalists, Rishid himself excluded; it was bearing, posture, facial expression. *I am in control, I am the master here. I need no one's help. I have everything, all is at my disposal.*  
  
Perhaps that was why Malik had disliked Kaiba by instinct.  
  
It was his master's sworn duty and personal crusade to destroy both Yuugi Mouto and the entity residing within the Sennen Puzzle, the soul of the Nameless Pharaoh; but Malik had set eyes on Kaiba and decided to destroy him too, as soon as the opportunity was given him. It might have been something to do with the Rod. More likely, it was something to do with Kaiba himself.  
  
Whatever the reason, Rishid was still slightly astonished when Malik came into his room and disturbed his meditation. However else the young man would tend to walk all over his servant, he usually let Rishid alone during his devotions. What surprised Rishid even more was when Malik, without really looking at Rishid straight, had asked him to murder Seto Kaiba as soon as he'd been defeated and his God Card taken away.  
  
"Master?"  
  
"You heard me. I can't stand the sight of him. Plus, he might well end up a nuisance later on, if he's allowed to live. He's too close to the Pharaoh and his little groupies for my liking."  
  
Rishid hid his discomfort admirably. Malik had never asked him to kill anyone before; that sort of thing had usually been left up to the sadistic and maniacal Ghouls.  
  
The first task, Malik had told him, would be to scope out Kaiba's quarters and find weaknesses in his security. No easy task, either, because Rishid, as "Malik", would be watched like a hawk.  
  
It took him a little while to figure out when the suited security guards in the hallway changed shift. Then it was relatively simple to slip out of his room and down the hallway of the Battle Ship. Getting into Kaiba's room was even easier. Through Ryou Bakura, Malik had watched Kaiba key in his security codes to open his door, and the information had been relayed on to Rishid. Near-photographic memory proved handy for Rishid in that case.  
  
What hadn't been handy was Seto Kaiba, sitting in an armchair facing him as he stepped through the doorway.  
  
Rishid had frozen on the spot, golden eyes wide with shock. So much for secretly sizing up Kaiba's defences...*now* there would be trouble.  
  
Kaiba emitted a very faint snore, and then a mumble. Only then did Rishid realize that the CEO was asleep; not very soundly, but sleeping nonetheless.  
  
*I won't wake him. I know I won't. First thing I learned from Ishtar- sama: don't make noise or be obtrusive. It's not a servant's job. And it often earns you a beating.*  
  
Effective lesson, in this case: if Kaiba awoke while Rishid was in his room, he'd sic his security personnel on the Egyptian, or even attack the intruder himself. But Rishid was confident he could avoid that.  
  
He walked forwards soundlessly, allowing the door to hiss shut behind him. Kaiba muttered something in his sleep, but did not stir. Rishid took advantage of this and began to inspect the CEO's room carefully. There didn't appear to be a panic button anywhere visible, nor any sort of guns or weapons available to the inhabitent. The room was even more sparsely furnished than his own: Kaiba seemed to have provided better for his guests than for himself.  
  
At least Rishid's room had a bed. And a miniature refrigerator, a piece of modern technology Rishid was still getting used to...along with car alarms, guns, and the music styles known as "techno" and "rock". The first time Malik had dragged Rishid off to a Hot Topic store to shop for clothes, the older man had rushed back out soon afterwards with his ears ringing. Malik, who appeared to be thoroughly enjoying all things flashy and loud, had come out half an hour later and made fun of Rishid, accusing him of being as stodgy as Isis was. Rishid had protested Malik's talking about his older sister in such a way, and Malik had slapped him for talking back, then forgotten all about it and asked Rishid what he thought of the new shirts he'd bought.  
  
*In some ways, a man and a man of war, and my master,* Rishid reflected, *and in others, still a child.*  
  
*In all the wrong ways both,* the rebellious vestige of Rishid's brain snapped, *and a very *spoiled* child, at that.*  
  
*That's not true.*  
  
*He's treated you like garbage since he was old enough to walk. He's never loved you the way you loved him. He never appreciating anything you did for him. He thinks the world revolves around his petty little needs...*  
  
*SHUT UP! You don't know what he's been through. You don't know how he's suffered. As for me...I don't deserve his love. I am a failure as a servant; I would have been even worse as a brother. I should never have let him suffer through the ritual; I should have reasoned with Ishtar-sama so that he understood. I should have protected him better so that Ishtar- sama wouldn't have known he and Isis-sama had ever left. I shouldn't have let...*that*...happen in front of him and Isis-sama; if I'd been stronger, I could have stopped it! And for your information, he's fighting for our freedom, against fate and everything that is: give him credit for that at least!*  
  
*Do you actually believe any of that crap?*  
  
"Shut up, I said!" Rishid hissed aloud, before remembering where he was and clapping his hands over his mouth. He glanced at Kaiba; the CEO, thank Ra, was still asleep.  
  
And *talking* in his sleep.  
  
Rishid blinked and approached Kaiba carefully, as one approaches a sleeping predator of uncertain domesticity. The young man was twitching convulsively and mumbling in what sounded like sentences.  
  
*You'd sleep better if you actually used a *bed*, rather than just napping in a chair,* Rishid thought grimly. *Maybe all the Rod Bearers, even the ones from ages gone by, are prone to insomnia. Although Malik-sama has never talked in his sleep, as far as I know...* Against his better judgement, Rishid leaned closer.  
  
Kaiba's face was covered with a sheen of sweat, and his brows were working as he twitched from side to side. Rishid had to move back slightly to avoid an unexpectedly flailed arm, but he didn't back away entirely, because now he could hear what Kaiba was saying.  
  
"Nn...know what you're up to...I'll handle this duel my way...use the disks, make sure y-you can't cheat..."  
  
Rishid blinked. Kaiba sounded...vulnerable. He'd never heard the young man's voice so unsure before, and the expression on his sleeping face was one of acute distress.  
  
"...have to...I...what is that? Oh God...Mokuba! Mokuba! What did you do to h-him, you eyeless bastard, you sadistic piece of...is he alive? What...did...y."  
  
Rishid had no clue what Kaiba was talking about: apart from Mokuba, the boy Rishid knew to be Kaiba's younger brother, this seemed to be a load of nonsense to him. Kaiba must either be remembering something from the past, or imagining things, because Rishid knew for a fact that Mokuba Kaiba was currently down the hallway, sound and sane and chewing Hiroto Honda and Ryuuji Otogi out for running Katsuya Jounouchi's fridge completely out of drinks and food before the competition had even started. What was the matter with him?  
  
"Mn...what the Hell? Blue Eyes Toon Dragon...hideous...desecrating *my* monsters, you worthless giggling velveteen-wearing excuse for...desecrating the whole...game...no...NO...this can't be...can't be right...lost? I can't have...no...that card...stop! Wait! MOKUBA!!"  
  
By now Kaiba had started thrashing unnervingly. Rishid drew back, partly to avoid flying fists and partly from embarrassment. Kaiba appeared to be having a night terror of sorts; Rishid knew the symptoms, as Isis had had them for several years starting just after her mother's death when she'd been four. However, he'd looked them up in a medical text once out of interest, and learned that they were generally confined to children. Watching Seto Kaiba going into what appeared to be a sleeping hysteria fit, complete with high volume, felt invasive like watching Malik use the Rod never had. And then there was the danger of someone overhearing and coming to see what was wrong...  
  
Rishid noticed then that Kaiba had stopped thrashing, and had curled up into a ball in his chair. Despondent sobs escaped from under him now and then, muffled by the fact that his arms were drawn up against his chest along with his long legs, his knuckles pressed against his mouth. Tears were streaming from the corners of his closed eyes.  
  
"Mokuba...I'm so sorry, Mokuba...I failed you."  
  
The words were barely whispered, but they hit Rishid like a punch. He stared down at the whimpering form below him, and his heart began to ache.  
  
**Rishid...don't let them...please, don't let them, I'm scared...RISHIIIIIID!!!**  
  
**I'm so sorry, Malik-sama...I failed you.**  
  
In what was probably the worst-judged move of his entire life, Rishid reached down and touched Seto Kaiba's cheek, very gently.  
  
And found out that it *was* possible to wake someone up from a night terror.  
  
In one shockingly fast, fluid series of motions, Seto Kaiba's cold blue eyes snapped open and narrowed, as he took in the invader's presence in his domain in a fraction of a second. That fraction allowed Rishid time to leap backwards and preserve his own life, as Kaiba flipped both himself and his chair over backwards and away from the perceived threat, then righted himself and ripped something from the underlining of the overturned armchair.  
  
*A katana,* Rishid realized as Kaiba jerked the sword from its sheath and moved fluidly into an attacking stance. *How on earth did I miss *that*??* He looked around for something he might use to defend himself, and realized there was nothing available: and although Kaiba might only be sixteen and not nearly as well-built as his opponent, thus armed and skilled he would easily be able to cut Rishid in half. *If he reacts violently, my mistake *will* cost me my life.*  
  
Kaiba, meanwhile, had realized who the intruder was, and his face had gone hard, a marked contrast to the last expression Rishid had been privy to. When he spoke, though, his voice was remarkably level, containing only a slight edge of contemptuous annoyance, as if supposed psychopaths wandering into his private room without announcement were a common nuisance to him.  
  
"May I ask who invited you in here, Malik?"  
  
Rishid shrugged and assumed a distant expression, cursing himself mentally for almost forgetting his role. "I...wished to discuss a matter with you, but I found you asleep."  
  
Kaiba barely raised an eyebrow, but his voice took on an extremely cold edge. "Oh? What sort of matter? The matter of my Blue Eyes White Dragons, maybe? Or was it the matter of the Divine Soldier of Obelisk?"  
  
Rishid only barely stopped himself from reminding Kaiba in a tired voice that one didn't simply steal a card from one's opponent, especially not a God Card, and then expect it to work on the field. Kaiba noticed the other man's jaw clench, and his voice dropped slightly, into the realm of pure venom.  
  
"Tell me why I shouldn't just kill you now, and remove the threat you present to my person and my property?"  
  
Rishid tried not to gulp. *Does he remember? Is that why he wants me dead? No, no, he doesn't have a clue what he was doing, I bet he doesn't even remember a thing. Remove the threat.*  
  
Before he could stop himself, Rishid blurted out, "And does that property include your brother?"  
  
Kaiba's eyes went wide, and for a moment it looked as if he would lunge forwards and skewer Rishid like a side of meat. But he held back, much to the other man's relief. "If you just threatened Mokuba..."  
  
"I mean no harm to your brother." Well, that was true enough. Kaiba didn't relax any, but the murderous look left his eyes.  
  
"Get out of my room. And if you value your life, you will not mention my brother again, nor even think of hurting him. Or I will end you."  
  
Rishid decided that he'd officially blown Malik's assignment by this point, and turned to leave with as much aloofness as he could muster. Halfway out the door, though, he paused and murmured, half to himself, "So is there nothing we will not sacrifice for those we love, you and I?"  
  
Kaiba's voice was harsh. "Pardon me?"  
  
Rishid recovered quickly. "I said, if you kill me, you will never possess the Winged Dragon of Ra. It's that simple."  
  
"Out!!"  
  
Rishid exited the doorway quickly. Just before the door slid shut behind him, however, he turned to see Seto Kaiba sitting down in the room's only upright chair, the katana forgotten on the rug, his head in his hands.  
  
*So perhaps he *does* remember...perhaps he knows...*  
  
Rishid walked back down the hallway back to his quarters, ignoring the suspicious stare from the two returning guards. He'd definitely blown his assignment; Kaiba would be on his guard now, and Malik was *not* going to be happy about that.  
  
*I guess I failed you yet again.*  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Part two, the resolution, is next, folks. Ja ne! ^____^ 


	2. Kaiba

PART TWO =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+  
  
Seto Kaiba watched unnoticed as Anzu Mazaki came dashing out of the makeshift hospital room set up by the emergency medical staff for the man they now knew to be Rishid, apparently in pursuit of Jounouchi so she could give him a piece of her mind. He made certain that no one else had hung around, and then walked into the room himself, just barely missing the automatic doors. Unfortunately, his trench coat got caught between them, to be released seconds later when the door's computer sensor array realized that something was between them that wasn't supposed to be. Normally Kaiba would have been deeply annoyed by this, fired the person responsible, and redesigned the sensors himself. This time, though he barely noticed, because he'd paused just inside the door, feeling curious, and also more than a little intrusive.  
  
The man on the bed-Rishid, he reminded himself, not Malik-was so still it was hard to believe he was alive. The only indicator that Seto Kaiba was not alone in a room with a corpse was the soft, regular beep of a heart monitor.  
  
*You called him "Master". Weird. He can't be more than half your age or so. He was screaming for you like a little kid, before...before he lost his mind. To whatever that *thing* is.*  
  
Kaiba didn't want to think about it. The Not-Malik, the insane Malik with the screwy hair, had gleefully turned on him and declared that he couldn't escape his own past, nor his connection to the Rod. That brought up dozens of issues he *really* didn't want, starting with the fact that the current Rod Bearer seemed to have gone completely off his rocker, in a new and special way. Mokuba was going to have nightmares about that face- stretching loon for years. Assuming any of them made it off the Battle Ship alive.  
  
It's not important, Kaiba told himself firmly. And it's not that serious. What matters is getting the God Cards, that's all. But he wasn't completely convincing himself, so he returned his attention to Rishid, or more specifically, the still man's medical chart.  
  
The doctor had left succinct and nearly-illegible notes on Rishid's physical condition, but Kaiba was used to weird handwriting, and deciphered it quickly. What he saw surprised him. Apart from the apparently self- inflicted facial carvings, Rishid had extensive scarring from third-degree burns on his back, not to mention a great deal of other scars and leftovers from old injuries. The doctor noted rather blandly that the man showed signs of childhood abuse and trauma, and that on recovery, he should probably receive therapy and counselling.  
  
*Therapy. Hnh. Too little, too late. He is already what he is. No therapy can change that.*  
  
Kaiba almost fancied he felt a phantom strap tighten around his neck, and a sharp pain jabbed at the base of his skull. Migraines again. He'd have to...  
  
His eye wandered to Rishid's face, and he noticed something he hadn't previously: one of the hieratic words sliced into the skin had been engraved deeper than the others. Had the Egyptian's hand slipped while he was working? It was surprising that nerve damage hadn't ensued. Kaiba wondered briefly what the Hell had possessed the tall, dark-skinned man to inflict that sort of pain on himself...and then became suspicious.  
  
"Computer, access central AI program, authorization Kaiba-one-six- four delta." There was an ensuing beep, as the Battle Ship's system contacted the AI residing in Kaiba's lab at home. Then a female voice sounded from the audio-recognizer and speaker panel across the room.  
  
"How may I help you?"  
  
"Use the room's security cameras to scan the markings on this man's face in the KaibaCorp database." There was an electronic whirring as the AI program did so.  
  
"Do you want me to translate them, sir?"  
  
Kaiba paused, then pointed at the deeply-graven word on Rishid's cheek. "No...just that one."  
  
"Searching database..." the AI chirped. There was a moment or two of silence, during which Kaiba sat quietly and watched Rishid. He knew he was wasting time; the next duel would begin soon. But he couldn't help it.  
  
**So is there nothing we will not sacrifice for those we love, you and I?**  
  
Kaiba blinked as Mokuba's smiling face swam before his eyes. For a brief moment, he could have sworn it mingled with the image of a little blond, dark-skinned boy who was sobbing in hysterical pain. Kaiba jerked his head back, startled.  
  
*Maybe *I'm* starting to lose my mind now.*  
  
"Sir?"  
  
Kaiba looked at the panel the AI's voice had issued from. "Yes?"  
  
"The word is on file, sir. It's 'love'."  
  
Kaiba closed his eyes and dismissed the AI, then opened them again and looked back over at Rishid. He hadn't really expected the man to stir...it was amazing he was even alive after being struck by lightening like that. He looked so peaceful and serene that way.  
  
Kaiba reached out and touched the deepest engraving on Rishid's cheek, his face softening just for an instant. Then he stood up and made for the door, coat flaring behind him, face immobile again.  
  
*I'm not going to fail. I don't have that luxury.*  
  
Behind him, the soft beeping of Rishid's heart monitor increased in speed ever so slightly, just for a moment: then it was normal again. Seto Kaiba assumed he had imagined it.  
  
END 


End file.
